My good friend Andrea Lattuada, who is the 2003 Italian Barista Champion, and a WBC 2005 Judge Candidate gave me this amazing video today, and I wanted to share it. He is one of the originators of "Coffee Flair".... what is that?

If you've ever seen a Bartending Championship, you know that the "flair" component is the coolest and most entertaining. Andrea is fostering a movement to introduce the world to Espresso, Barista, or as they call it "caffe flair".

In the video, Andrea is the guy with the longer hair of the two.

The other person demonstrating with him is Fabio Milani, who is also a certified judge for the World Bartending Flair Competition.

Check them out, it's seriously amazing stuff. And I should point out that they are by and large "WBC Standards" in the prep of their drinks in this movie. They are delaying a bit on service and hitting the brew switch (after grinding) but otherwise, it's all WBC spec stuff... with flair.

Andrea works with 9Bar (www.9bar.it), and is, as mentioned, the 2003 Italian Barista Champion. He's also promised me he will start writing in our forums as a regular participant :)

Maybe dousing the metal part of the portafilters in some type of taste neutral alcohol so you can set it alight to keep the heat retention while doing all the theatrics would make chris happier. To ensure consistency in application we should also graph the exact amount of time that the portafilter should be kept on fire while also taking into effect ambient room temperature on said temps. Dan kehn if you are out there are you busy and can you juggle? :P

At the Western Regionals, I saw some guy flip his portafilter after tamping. While in mid air the puck fell out and the coffee hit the ground making a mess. It took him like 3 times to get it right without the coffee falling out. I guess he didn't get too many marks for cleaniness.

Though the video was cool maybe some day we'll see someone doing this blind folded on a unicycle.

At the Western Regionals, I saw some guy flip his portafilter after tamping. While in mid air the puck fell out and the coffee hit the ground making a mess. It took him like 3 times to get it right without the coffee falling out. I guess he didn't get too many marks for cleaniness.

Though the video was cool maybe some day we'll see someone doing this blind folded on a unicycle.

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